Sit 'n Sleep takes Rolls-Royce approach
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, September 8, 2003
Carson, Calif. — A Rolls-Royce approach to marketing is driving bedding sales to new heights at Sit 'n Sleep, a thriving sleep shop operator based here.
"Everybody wants to sit in a Rolls-Royce," said President Larry Miller. "Not everyone can afford one."
But everyone who enters one of Sit 'n Sleep's 12 sprawling, spotless stores, which ring the greater Los Angeles market, can try out one of the company's high-end beds. And enough of those consumers wind up selecting better beds that Sit 'n Sleep produces an average sales ticket of about $1,000, almost double the industry average.
"Isn't it just fun to try the very best?" Miller asks. "Everybody deserves the best."
Many times the company starts consumers on one of the most expensive beds in the store, such as a Stearns & Foster Bonne Nuit, retailing at about $4,999 in queen.
"It's best for the consumer to start at the high end and work them down rather than advertising $69 mattresses and try to work them up," Miller said.
The company's highly trained sales associates encourage consumers to try better beds, even if they want to focus on lower-priced models.
"Our associates have the duty of starting consumers at a better bed," Miller said. "That is so much easier than starting at $399."
Consumers at Sit 'n Sleep stores have a huge selection of high-end beds to choose from. About half the 150 beds in the showrooms, which average about 11,500 square feet, are priced at $1,000 or higher.
The all-star lineup includes some of the best names in the bedding business: Sealy, Stearns & Foster, Simmons, Serta, Spring Air, Chattam & Wells, Nature's Rest and Tempur-Pedic. The company also has a private-label line, Miralux, produced by IBC, and another house brand called Best Bedding.
Most of those beds are displayed in king and queen sizes, which also helps to drive up the company's average sales ticket, since consumers tend to buy what they are shown.
